April 2020 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

"Singapore, vado a Singapore…"
by Antonio Casilli April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020

Singapore to shut down workplaces and schools - contact tracing isn't effective enough. Prime minister says "despite our good contact tracing, for nearly half of these [new] cases, we do not know where or from whom the person caught the virus." https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/most-workplaces-to-close-scho… -- Antonio A. Casilli Professor, Telecom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris Member, Interdisciplinary Institute for Innovation (i3 UMR 9217 CNRS) Associate Member, LACI-IIAC (EHESS) Faculty Fellow, Nexa Center for Internet & Society *We respect your right to disconnect. This email send time is due to my own workflow efficiency. You are in no obligation to take action or reply to it outside your office hours.*

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noyb.eu report on video conferencing privacy policies
by Alberto Cammozzo April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020

<https://noyb.eu/en/interrupted-transmission> The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has forced many people to work from home. Video conferencing tools and other remote means of communication make this possible, transforming our homes into our offices. They also help keep us connected with friends and family, regardless of where they are. Video conferencing tools literally open a lens into our homes. The personal and professional spheres are increasingly merging. We phone with our parents and children, discuss business strategy with our colleagues, and perhaps relax with our yoga teacher after work, following her flow in front of our screen. While we appreciate how video conferencing tool providers facilitate all this, the intimacy they permit calls for an equally intimate look into their compliance with EU data protection law. We zoomed in on the privacy policies of six tools: Zoom, Webex Meetings (Cisco), Meeting (LogMeIn), Skype and Teams (both Microsoft), and Wire. While the video quality of the investigated tools may often be crystal clear, and the user interfaces well-thought out, the service providers’ privacy policies do not meet this standard. Static in the form of “may” or “might”, “as necessary”, or “as required by law” cloud the picture. Sometimes whole parts are missing, such as information about basic GDPR rights. Finally, poor structure makes accessing the available information challenging. Video conferencing providers need to work on meeting their information obligations under the GDPR. Read the full report <https://noyb.eu/sites/default/files/2020-04/noyb_-_report_on_privacy_polici…>

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Palantir in Talks With Germany, France for Virus-Fighting Tool
by Enrico Bergamini April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/palantir-in-talks-with-g…

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SARS-CoV-2 Tracking under GDPR - Max Shrems -NoYB- Ad hoc Paper (V0.2)
by Alberto Cammozzo April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020

<https://noyb.eu/sites/default/files/2020-04/Ad%20hoc%20Paper_Corona%20Track…> In the wake of the Corona crisis, many governments and non-governmental institutions consider the usage of infection tracking systems to fight the pandemic. They float different ideas how these systems shall look like (see examples here). While reviewing some of those ideas, noyb has prepared this ad hoc paper on legal requirements for virus tracking systems. While this paper can give a general and superficial overview of the minimal requirements of the GDPR and possible compliance strategies, it naturally remains abstract and needs to be adapted to any specific tracking project. We feel that compliance with baseline privacy protections is crucial for the acceptance of any such tracking system by the public. This paper is not a policy document and does not make any political assessment of different tracking approaches. It also does not attempt to assess which processing operations would be necessary from a medical or statistical perspective. Max Schrems Chairperson, noyb.eu We intend to update this paper over the next days and weeks. Please check for the latest version of this paper on noyb.eu. 1. SCOPE OF THIS PAPER (TRACKING APPS) This paper is focused on known technical methods to tracking infections of individuals with SARS-CoV-2. These approaches focus on interactions between individuals where such interaction happens in a sufficiently close physical proximity and long enough for the virus to be transmitted – but between individuals that are not intimate enough to inform each other about their infection status without the use of a digital tracking system. Realistic scenarios are e.g. encounters with co-travelers on a train or bus or longer interactions in stores, restaurants and alike. In contrast, the tracking of briefly passing stranger on the street (as the interaction is usually not intense enough) or the tracking of co-workers or family members (as they are known to the infected person anyways) seem to be of limited benefit. This paper does not cover the use of personal data for statistical purposes or policy assessments (like mobile phone data analysed for movement statistics) or the use of personal data for the surveillance of quarantined persons. [...]

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Biometrics entrepreneurs say they're talking to governments fighting Covid-19 | Biometric Update
by Alberto Cammozzo April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020

<https://www.biometricupdate.com/202004/biometrics-entrepreneurs-say-theyre-…> Facial recognition was so hot for a while that most elevator pitches for biometrics seemed to at least name-checked it, hoping some cool would rub off. Now, facial recognition is hot in a different sense and some biometrics entrepreneurs are adamant that their idea is not facial recognition. Take for example the biometrics startup Traces AI (formally known as Traces Inc.), which sells services based on algorithms that track people appearing on video by noticing 2,000 parameters of a person, none of which is on their face. In an interview with Forbes.com, Traces AI Founders Veronika Yurchuk and Kostyantyn Shysh said they are talking with multiple Asian nations about using their service after the fact — to trace the contacts of people who test positive for the novel coronavirus. No further details have been released. Working from an image or a description, the software pores over frames from standard camera networks as small as eight (and with no top end). It searches for and tracks attributes including age and build, hair color and style, clothing and bags, watches and jewelry, phones and glasses. Faces are blurred. The Palo Alto, California company is a product of Y Combinator, which invested $150,000 in Traces AI last August. The founders have acknowledged in news coverage that during live searches, such as after a crime, its service’s usefulness degrades rapidly. Limitations on facial recognition continues to be debated, with a handful of states, cities and counties banning or debating a ban of the use by public agencies, businesses or both. Then there is the infamous case of web scraper Clearview AI, which has, without permission trawled social media to collect billions of face images posted to social media. But even factoring out opposition to face scanning, there still are practicalities to consider. Most significant, CCTV cameras as a rule are placed above people in order to monitor medium to large areas. And much of the urban population of Asia — especially in pollution-choked China — wear masks, making faces less useful in surveilling people. Traces AI is not the first player in biometrics to see bodies as valuable bits of evidence that artificial intelligence can gather. Researchers at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, for example, have developed an algorithm capable of correctly reading a person’s mood 82 percent of the time by analyzing how a person walks.

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epidemic control with digital contact tracing - Science
by Giuseppe Attardi April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020

Articolo su Science. Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing A contact-tracing App which builds a memory of proximity contacts and immediately notifies contacts of positive cases can achieve epidemic control if used by enough people. By targeting recommendations to only those at risk, epidemics could be contained without need for mass quarantines (‘lock-downs’) that are harmful to society. We discuss the ethical requirements for an intervention of this kind. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/03/30/science.abb6936 <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/03/30/science.abb6936>

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A few links of interest [notsp]
by Diego.Latella April 3, 2020

April 3, 2020

Dear All, A few links of interest, I hope Diego 1) Interview by Lucas Perry with Paul Scharre: AI Alignment Podcast: On Lethal Autonomous Weapons with Paul Scharre https://futureoflife.org/2020/03/16/on-lethal-autonomous-weapons-with-paul-… 2) AI and Facial Recognition: Challenges and Opportunities https://edps.europa.eu/press-publications/press-news/blog/ai-and-facial-rec… 3) It is useful to circulate this message from ACA https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2020-04/focus/pandemic-reveals-misplaced-pr… -- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher - CNR/ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, IT (http:www.isti.cnr.it [1]); FM&&T Laboratory (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) http://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - phone: +39 0503152982 - mob: +39 348 8283101 - fax +39 0503152040 Links: ------ [1] http://www.isti.cnr.it

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Automated decision-making systems and the fight against COVID-19 – our position – AlgorithmWatch
by J.C. DE MARTIN April 2, 2020

April 2, 2020

https://algorithmwatch.org/en/our-position-on-adms-and-the-fight-against-co… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Get Used to It: This Lockdown Won’t Be the Last
by Enrico Nardelli April 2, 2020

April 2, 2020

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/03/lockdowns-hong-ko… HONG KONG—As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases exploded in China early this year, Hong Kong, densely populated and connected to the mainland, was able to largely contain the virus’s spread. A combination of community response and official action held back the pace of infections, with the number of patients discharged from treatment until recently outpacing those remaining in the hospital. This month, civil servants on work-from-home orders were allowed to return to their office. Soon, private businesses started to do the same. Commuters began to refill the buses and subways. Bars and restaurants left largely vacant for weeks saw patrons remerge. As reports of outbreaks abroad worsened, Hong Kong appeared to be slowly returning to form. In recent days, this semblance of normalcy has vanished. The number of confirmed cases here has ticked upward at a much quicker pace than before, worrying health experts. The government reversed course on its easing of restrictions, sending workers back home, closing parks and city facilities, and reiterating calls for social distancing. It also introduced newer, more stringent measures, barring tourists and transit passengers from Hong Kong’s airport, one of the world’s busiest, and quarantining those who are allowed in. (A large portion of the recent confirmed cases are imported.) Another cluster of confirmed cases has been linked to bars and live-music venues, so gatherings of more than four people have been deemed illegal for the next two weeks; restaurants will reduce their capacity, and entertainment areas like cinemas and arcades must temporarily close. -- EN ===================================================================== Prof. Enrico Nardelli Dipartimento di Matematica - Universita' di Roma "Tor Vergata" Via della Ricerca Scientifica snc - 00133 Roma tel: +39 06 7259.4204 fax: +39 06 7259.4699 mobile: +39 335 590.2331 e-mail: nardelli(a)mat.uniroma2.it home page: http://www.mat.uniroma2.it/~nardelli blog: http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/blog/enardelli/ http://link-and-think.blogspot.it/ ===================================================================== --

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The EARN IT Act Violates the Constitution | Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Alberto Cammozzo April 2, 2020

April 2, 2020

<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/earn-it-act-violates-constitution> Since senators introduced the EARN IT Act (S. 3398) in early March, EFF has called attention to the many ways in which the bill would be a disaster for Internet users’ free speech and security. We’ve explained how the EARN IT Act could be used to drastically undermine encryption. Although the bill doesn’t use the word “encryption” in its text, it gives government officials like Attorney General William Barr the power to compel online service providers to break encryption or be exposed to potentially crushing legal liability. The bill also violates the Constitution’s protections for free speech and privacy. As Congress considers the EARN IT Act—which would require online platforms to comply with to-be-determined “best practices” in order to preserve certain protections from criminal and civil liability for user-generated content under Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230)—it’s important to highlight the bill’s First and Fourth Amendment problems. [...]

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